A person who has difficulty in standing up by himself/herself because of muscle weakness and diseases needs certain assistance. For example, a driving apparatus has been suggested to assist a standing up action of a person by inclining a seat surface forward or raising the seat surface when the person stands up from a seated state on the seat surface such as a toilet seat. However, with the driving apparatus, the inclination of the seat surface during assistance is changed every moment, and this greatly changes the load applied to the legs of the person in accordance with the standing up action. The change in the load applied to the legs during assistance (especially, a load applied in a direction in which the knees are bent) is not preferable in order for a person to perform a stable standing up action.
Therefore, a problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a driving apparatus and a driving method capable of assisting a person's standing up action in a stable manner.